PRESIDENT 

VENUSTIANO 
CARRANZA 


Corrects  Statements 

made  by 

Senator  Knox,  of  Pennsylvania 
in  the  Senate 


Ml  XICAN  EMBASSY 
Washington,  D.  C. 

C'1'rl 


PRESIDENT 


VENUSTIANO 
CARRANZA 


Corrects  Statements 

made  by 

Senator  Knox,  of  Pennsylvania 
in  the  Senate 


MEXICAN  EMBASSY 
Washington,  D.  C. 


I  HAVE  read  an  article  which  the  Pittsburgh  Dispatch, 
of  Pittsburgh,  Penna.,  published  on  the  2d  of  May  last. 
in  which  it  is  stated  that  Senator  Knox,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, ex-Secretary  of  State,  delivered  a  speech  making 
reference  to  the  message  that  I  read  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  of  Mexico,  on  the  I5th  of  April,  and  in  which 
IK-  undertakes  to  correct  my  statements,  and  submits  as 
pretended  proof  of  his  allegations  the  copy  of  a  telegram 
which,  he  said,  was  sent  from  Saltillo  on  the  21  st  of 
February.  i<H3,  by  the  American  Consul,  Holland,  to  the 
Department  of  State  of  the  Washington  Government. 
For  the  information  of  the  public,  I  transcribe  herein  what 
Senator  Knox  said,  according  to  the  dispatch  published  by 
the  paper  referred  to : 

Mr.  President,  I  rise  to  a  matter  of  personal  privilege,  which  will 
take  only  a  few  moments.  On  the  27th  day  of  April,  1916,  in  a  public 
address  I  made  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh  before  the  Americus  Club, 
in  speaking  of  the  recognition  by  large  numbers  of  the  Mexican  people 
and  large  areas  of  the  Mexican  Republic  of  the  accession  of  Gen. 
Huerta.  I  used  this  language: 

"It  was  the  judgment  of  the  diplomats  representing  foreign  countries 
in  Mexico  that  the  provisional  government  in  Mexico  had  been  installed 
in  compliance  with  the  Mexican  constitution  and  Mexican  precedent, 
and  that  its  speedy  recognition  would  be  helpful  in  restoring  normal 
conditions  throughout  the  country.  The  American  ambassador  shared 
this  view  and  asked  for  instructions.  Gen.  Carranza,  who  at  that  time 
was  governor  of  one  of  the  Mexican  States,  had  officially  informed  this 
Government  of  his  adherence  to  the  new  government;  the  Mexican 
Congress  and  courts  had  recognized  its  authority,  and  advices  from 
our  diplomatic  and  consular  officers  indicated  a  very  general  adherence 
to  its  authority  throughout  the  Republic." 

A  few  days  after  the  publication  of  that  address,  on  the  7th  day  of 
May.  there  was  published  an  article  in  the  New  York  World  by  Gen. 
Carranza  in  which  he  referred  to  the  statement  I  have  just  read. 
Gen.  Carranza  said: 

"It  was  impossible  for  me  to  have  adhered  to  Huerta  or  to  have 
notified  anyone  that  I  had,  for  upon  the  very  day  I  received  a  message 
from  Huerta  inviting  me  to  adhere  to  him,  I  officially  proclaimed  that 
I  disclaimed  him  and  his  government.  Knox  can  not  prove  his 
statement." 

I  was  requested  to  give  an  interview  in  reply  to  that  statement  by 
Gen.  Carranza.  I  declined  to  do  it.  stating  that  there  would  be  time 
enough  for  me  to  take  cognizance  of  such  a  statement  when  what  I 
had  said  had  been  denied  upon  the  authority  of  the  State  Department 
where  the  archives  rested  proving  my  statement. 


I  would  have  let  the  matter  go  at  that,  but  a  few  days  ago,  in  an 
address  to  the  Mexican  Congress,  Gen.  Carranza  revived  this  denial  and 
stated  that  I  had,  in  an  interview  recently  in  regard  to  the  situation  in 
Mexico,  practically  reiterated  that  statement,  and  he  denounced  it  as 
false. 

I  wish  to  say,  Mr.  President,  that  from  the  time  I  ceased  to  be 
Secretary  of  State  until  this  very  moment  I  never  gave  out  an  inter- 
view upon  any  matter  pertaining  to  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  United 
States  at  any  time  or  in  any  place,  and  so  far  as  I  know  no  interview 
purporting  to  have  come  from  me  has  ever  been  published  in  an 
American  newspaper. 

I  send  to  the  desk  and  ask  that  there  may  be  read  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  arranged  a  letter  I  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
his  reply,  and  the  inclosure  of  his  reply,  as  follows : 

April  18,  1917. 
"Hon.  Robert  Lansing, 

Secretary  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"Dear  Mr.  Lansing:  In  a  report  made  by  Gen.  Carranza  to  the  Mex- 
ican Congress  on  the  15th  instant,  the  General  took  occasion  to  de- 
nounce as  entirely  false  an  interview  which  he  alleged  I  gave  out, 
naming  me  as  Senator  Knox,  in  which  he  puts  into  my  mouth  words 
I  never  said,  and  refers  to  an  interview  I  never  gave,  never  having 
given  any  upon  the  subject.  This  all  arises  out  of  a  statement  that 
I  made  in  a  public  speech  to  the  effect  that  within  a  few  days  after  the 
accession  of  Gen.  Huerta,  Gen.  Carranza  had  notified  the  American 
consul  in  the  State  of  Coahuila  that  he  was  prepared  to  acknowledge 
the  Huerta  regime  in  Mexico.  These  are  not  the  exact  words  I  used, 
but  they  were  words  to  that  effect.  Within  a  few  days  after  making 
this  statement  there  appeared  in  the  New  York  World  an  interview 
with  Gen.  Carranza,  in  which  he  denounced  that  statement  as  false. 

"I  will  be  obliged  to  you  if  you  will  transmit  to  me,  for  the  purpose 
of  having  the  same  introduced  into  the  Record,  a  copy  of  a  telegram 
received  by  the  Department  of  State,  in  which  the  department  is 
informed  as  to  the  intentions  of  Gen.  Carranza  in  relation  to  the 
recognition  of  Huerta,  and  which  likewise  states  that  this  information 
had  been  transmitted  as  well  to  our  embassy  in  Mexico  City.  I  can 
not  recall  the  date  of  this  telegram,  but  it  appeared  in  the  information 
series  on  the  troubles  of  Mexico,  and  will  be  found,  I  think,  under 
some  date  in  February  of  1913. 

"Your  compliance  with  this  request  will  enable  me  to  justify  my 
statement  and  settle  an  annoying  incident.  My  purpose  is  to  rise  to  a 
question  of  personal  privilege  and  deny  that  I  ever  gave  an  interview 
such  as  Gen.  Carranza  quotes,  or  any  interview  at  all  on  the  subject, 
and  to  produce  the  telegram  as  an  authority  for  the  only  statement 
that  I  have  ever  made  in  reference  to  the  matter. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

P.  C.  KNOX." 


Secretary    Lansing   readily   complied    with    1'  t   of    Senator 

t  him  :i  copy  «>f  the  following  official  telegram  regarding 
the  question,  and  which  shows  that  Carranza  did  exactly  what  Mr. 
Knox  says  he  had  done: 

I  Telegram  received    from   Saltillo.   dated  February  21,   1913,  rec< 
!;ehruary  JJ.  l.JJ  a.  m.] 

Washington,  D.  C. 
February  21,  1  p.  m. : 

Gov.  Carranza  has  just  announced  to  me  officially  that  he  will  con- 
form with  the  new  administration  at  Mexico  City.  All  opposition  here 
abandoned.  Railroads  will  be  opened  at  once.  Perfect  quiet  prevails. 
Kmbassy  advised.  HOLLAND. 


This  closes  the  incident  so  far  as  it  concerns  Senator  Knox, 
and  this  correspondence  is  now  incorporated  into  the  archives 
(or  records)  of  Congress,  and  made  part  of  history. 

I  now  find  myself  under  the  necessity  of  again  rectifying 
(or  correcting)  the  statements  made  by  Mr.  Knox,  who  affirms 
that  I  recognized  the  usurper,  Victoriano  Huerta,  after  the 
coup  d'etat  which  he  engineered  in  Mexico  City,  on  the  i8th 
of  February,  1913,  because  not  only  is  this  confirmation  false, 
as  I  have  already  stated  in  the  message  which  I  read  to  the 
Congress  of  the  Union,  on  the  I5th  of  April  of  this  year,  but 
also  because  the  personal  feeling  of  the  Senator  who  has  dealt 
in  this  question  gives  more  or  less  veracity  to  a  declaration 
l>y  the  Consul,  Holland,  which,  he  said,  he  had  obtained  from 
me,  but  who  has  no  proof  that  I  did  so,  as  this  was  only  one 
of  the  ruses  employed  during  the  course  of  events  immediately 
following  those  of  the  i8th  of  February,  1913,  with  the  object 
of  giving  the  Government  of  the  United  States  the  impression 
that  all  the  governors  of  the  various  Federal  Entities  of  the 
Republic  had  accepted  the  new  order  of  things,  and,  therefore, 
it  \vas  due  that  the  American  Government  should  also  recog- 
nize the  usurping  government. 

In  no  other  way  is  explained  the  hardly  honorable  behavior 
of  the  then  Ambassador,  Henry  Lane  Wilson,  for  while  on  one 
hand  he  communicated  with  Consul  Holland  by  telegraph, 
directing  him  to  exert  pressure  on  me  su  that  1  would  recognize 


Huerta  as  President  of  the  Republic,  with  assurances  that  he 
had  already  been  recognized  as  such  by  the  governors  of  all 
the  States  and  by  the  representatives  of  all  the  foreign  gov- 
ernments, including  those  of  the  United  States,  accredited  to 
Mexico,  and  acknowledging  the  fact  that  I  was  the  only  one 
who  had  refused  to  grant  said  recognition ;  on  the  other  hand, 
Consul  Holland,  with  the  object  of  helping  Ambassador  Wilson 
in  his  designs,  was  addressing  the  Department  of  State,  assur- 
ing it  that  I  had  made  the  official  statement  to  the  effect  that 
I  would  give  my  approval  to  the  new  administration  in  Mexico 
City,  and  this  was  done,  as  it  will  be  clearly  seen,  with  the 
object  of  making  it  appear  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  that  the  regime  created  by  the  coup  d'etat  of  February 
1 8th  had  been  accepted  by  all  the  political  entities  of  the  coun- 
try, with  which  allegations  General  Huerta  and  Ambassador 
Henry  Lane  Wilson  hoped  to  also  obtain  the  recognition  of 
the  new  administration  by  the  American  Government. 

The  untruthfulness  of  these  statements  is  shown  by  my 
unchanging  attitude  from  the  time  that  I  knew  of  what  took 
place  in  the  Capital  of  the  Republic,  on  the  i8th  of  February, 
because  when  General  Huerta  communicated  to  me  that,  in 
accord  with  the  Senate,  he  had  assumed  the  Executive  Power 
of  the  Nation,  and  held  as  prisoners  the  President  and  Vice- 
President,  who  had  been  duly  elected,  I  brought  these  facts 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  Legislature  of  Coahuila,  which  body 
issued,  on  the  I9th  of  February,  decree  No.  1421,  by  means 
of  which,  and  in  representation  of  the  State,  whose  govern- 
ment was  under  my  charge,  the  character  of  Victoriano  Huerta, 
as  Chief  Executive  of  the  Nation,  was  repudiated;  his  acts 
were  also  repudiated,  and  extraordinary  powers  were  granted 
to  me  in  all  the  branches  of  public  administration  for  the 
purpose  of  assisting  in  the  maintenance  of  constitutional  order 
in  the  Republic,  and  by  which  it  was  ordered  to  arouse  the 
governments  of  all  the  States,  the  chiefs  of  the  Federal  forces, 
Rurales  and  auxiliary  forces  of  the  Federation,  so  that  they 
might  follow  the  course  taken  by  the  government  of  Coahuila. 

Immediately  I  addressed  by  telegraph  the  governors  of  the 
neighboring  States,  informing  them  that  the  government  of 
Coahuila  had  repudiated  the  unspeakable  assault  against  the 


fundamental  pact ;  had  repudiated  the  government  of  Victori- 
ano  IliuTia.  and  invited  all  the  governors  and  military  chiefs 
to  place  themselves  on  the  side  of  law  and  order. 

When  my  attitude  was  known  in  Mexico  City,  Ambassador 
Wilson  instructed  Consul  Holland  to  exert  pressure  on  me 
with  the  object  of  changing  that  attitude,  and,  in  fact,  the  said 
Consul,  accompanied  by  Vice-Consul  Silliman,  who  acted  as 
his  interpreter,  came  to  me  and  expressed  what  I  have  already 
stated  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs. 

My  answer  was  an  absolute  refusal  to  recognize  Victoriano 
Huerta,  and  so  final  was  this  that,  notwithstanding  the  confir- 
mation that  the  Consul  had  expressed  to  me  of  the  allegation 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  recognized  that 
of  the  usurper,  I  addressed,  on  the  26th,  from  Ramos  Arizpe, 
via  the  International  Railway,  a  telegram  to  President  Taft, 
as  follows: 

"The  haste  with  which  your  government  has  recognized  the  fraud- 
ulent government  that  Huerta  is  trying  to  build  upon  treason  and 
crime,  has  brought  civil  war  to  the  State  of  Coahuila,  which  I  repre- 
sent, and  very  soon  it  will  spread  all  over  the  country.  The  Mexican 
Nation  condemns  the  villainous  coup  d'etat  that  has  deprived  her  of 
her  constitutional  rulers,  but  she  knows  that  her  institutions  are  sound 
and  she  is  ready  to  uphold  and  defend  them.  I  hope  that  your  successor 
will  proceed  with  more  caution  regarding  the  social  and  political 
interests  of  my  country.  Signed — V.  Carranza,  Constitutional  Gov- 
ernor of  Coahuila." 

This  message  was  altered  to  a  certain  extent  by  Sr.  Teodulo 
R.  Beltran,  who  was  at  Eagle  Pass,  and  to  whom  I  sent  the 
message  to  be  forwarded  by  him  to  Washington,  and  at  whose 
conduct  I  was  greatly  puzzled,  for  he  had  no  authority  to 
make  the  said  change  in  the  text  of  my  message.  The  message, 
as  altered  by  Sr.  Beltran  and  forwarded  by  him  to  Washington, 
read  as  follows: 


"The  Mexican  Nation  condemns  the  coup  d'etat  that  has  deprived 
her  of  her  constitutional  rulers,  who  were  cowardly  assassinated;  but 
she  knows  that  her  institutions  are  sound  and  she  is  ready  to  uphold 
and  defend  them.  I  hope  that  your  Excellency's  government,  as  well 
as  that  of  your  successor,  will  not  recognize  the  fraudulent  government 


that  Huerta  is  trying  to  build  upon  treason  and  crime,  but  that  you 
will  proceed  with  caution  regarding  the  political  and  social  interests 
of  my  country.  Signed— V.  Carranza,  Constitutional  Governor  of 
Coahuila." 

I  referred  to  these  facts  in  my  report  to  the  Congress  of  the 
Union,  and  also  to  the  second  interview  which  I  had  with 
Vice-Consul  Silliman  at  Villa  de  Arteaga,  where  I  had  estab- 
lished my  headquarters,  a  few  days  after  the  first  interview 
which  I  had  with  Consul  Holland,  all  of  which  prove  that  I 
continued  to  follow  the  same  course  that  I  had  taken  since 
the  i Qth  of  February  concerning  Huerta. 

In  the  meantime  I  continued  making  preparations  for  the 
struggle,  and  already  I  had  fought  the  federal  forces,  on  the 
7th  day  of  May,  at  the  Hacienda  de  Anhelo,  and  I  attacked, 
during  the  22d  and  23d,  the  city  of  Saltillo,  which  had  been 
occupied  by  the  forces  of  Huerta. 

In  order  that  the  Revolution  might  be  provided  with  a 
banner,  and  that  it  might  spread  all  over  the  national  territory, 
as  the  decree  of  the  Legislature  of  Coahuila  only  referred  to 
the  repudiation  by  the  government  of  the  State  of  the  admin- 
istration that  resulted  from  the  coup  d'etat  of  February,  there 
was  signed,  on  the  26th  of  March,  at  the  Hacienda  de  Guada- 
lupe,  by  all  the  chiefs  of  the  forces  that  were  under  my  com- 
mand, the  plan  that  served  as  the  guidon  for  the  continuance 
of  the  campaign. 

Such  acts  show  that  not  only  did  I  refuse  to  recognize  the 
fraudulent  government  of  Huerta,  but  also  that  I  assumed  the 
command  of  the  Revolution  down  to  its  successful  termination, 
and  this  is  vouched  by  the  inhabitants  of  Saltillo,  who  wit- 
nessed the  preparations  I  undertook,  dating  from  the  iQth  of 
February,  to  fight  the  usurpation. 

With  this  I  shall  consider  as  closed  the  discussion  which 
Senator  Knox  has  endeavored  to  maintain  regarding  this 
matter,  pretending  to  justify  himself  and  the  government  which 
he  served,  for  the  undignified  procedure  of  Ambassador  Lane 
Wilson,  and  I  consider  as  opportune  in  frankly  acknowledging 
that  the  intrigue  with  which  said  Ambassador  tried  to  obtain 
the  recognition  of  the  administration  of  Victoriano  Huerta 
from  the  government  of  President  Wilson  failed  before  the 


upr:  !  judgment  of  tin-  government  of 

ulrow   \\'ilso;i,  who  took  eh  his  high   post  on  the 

4t!i   of   March,   1913;  also,   it   should   he  acknowledged  that 
ident  Taft.  with  utmost  serenity,  in  the  lust  d:iys  of  his 

constitutional  term,  refrained  from  granting  the  same  rccog- 
•n,  leaving  to  his  successor  the  responsibility  of  pa 

upon  the  events  that  took  place  at  the  Capital  of  the  Republic 

in  tlie  month  of  February  of  that  year. 


Mexico.  1 5th  June, 


